Concón / Chile

We decided to head to Concon after Valparaiso in search of more waves! When we got there, though, the waves were so small [Annie is being generous. They were mush. -R] and lined with 70+ beginners [Read: “kooks” -R] at a time. The surf spot is right on the mouth of the river, with water flowing from three old refineries. While I love to dig my toes into any sand, I kept my shoes on here. If you have eardrops ready and want to go for a surf, there are five or six surf schools right on the beach, each in their homemade bamboo shop, complete with indo board and hammock. If the waves were better, we would certainly have hopped in.
We spent our time running along a little path along the edge of the water, essentially a narrow obstacle course…don’t fall over the cliff onto the rocks, watch the cars, don’t twist an ankle on the upturned cement, dodge the seagull poop, take a break to watch the prehistoric giant pelicans watching you. It was really a beautiful seaward facing town with beachy homes perched on the hill, too bad about the water quality.

• Do beach and surf. We also heard from a local that if you wade across the mouth of the river you could walk for hours uninterrupted on the other side.
• Eat empanadas at Casa del Mono, which was recommended to us by an empanada expert. The restaurants along the main strip are all very pushy, which just turned us off and we opted for experimenting with some recipes. There are two giant supermarkets right next to one another.
• Sleep at this bed and breakfast (listed on AirBnB). It was family run and, when cooking meals in the kitchen, we got to chat with all three generations, so so nice.
• Don’t do more that two nights unless the surf is amazing or you are determined to finish a book.
• Tips We caught a little bus from the highway along the water in Valparaiso. In 20 minutes we passed Vina del Mar (we heard Vina has great clubbing, clean beaches and shopping, so hop off if you’re into that…..otherwise pass by), then reached Concon 20 minutes later. There are also daily buses from Concon to Santiago, where we headed next.